Will City Minister be parachuted into RBOS? Myners set for major role

Carols: Rod Liddle will attend the event on Fleet Street on December 9

Who'll end up running the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland if the Government decide to call the bluff of its management over bonuses and tell them they're free to leave? The buzz at Westminster is that City minister Lord Myners would be parachuted in. Who better? Former City journalist Paul Myners, 61, is no stranger to the world of unfeasibly huge earnings. He is estimated to have made £30million from his own dealings.

Whereas Jeremy Paxman is unquestionably Newsnight's Mr Nasty - did you see his duffing-up on Monday of crooner Sting? - Gavin Esler is the programme's Mr Nice. But is he too nice? Interviewing defeated Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, Esler called him 'sir' and ended, oleaginously, with 'Senator, it's been a pleasure.' Heaven knows what Paxo would have said to him.

Broadcaster Andrew Neil will give a reading at a most unusual carol service (with drinks and canapes) in St Bride's, off Fleet Street, on December 9 organized by The Spectator magazine and costing a cool £45 a head, with all profits going to Cancer Research UK. As will the magazine's editor, Robert Burns lookalike Fraser Nelson, and its roguish, ladies-man columnist Rod Liddle, pictured, formerly editor of Radio 4's Today show, a man, say friends, more likely to be found removing lead from a church roof than singing carols in the pews.

The BBC Trust has ruled against a complaint about a report by political editor Nick Robinson. Describing Business Secretary Peter Mandelson's return to government, Robinson said he 'attracted controversy like manure attracts flies'. Indeed so. Robinson might have replied --like the late Major General Robert Clive, of India, after being accused of colonial plundering - 'I stand amazed at my own moderation.'

Hair-raising ruckus: Donald Trump is arguing with locals over his proposed Aberdeenshire golf development

The rumpus between New York real estate mogul Donald Trump and his Aberdeenshire neighbour, fisherman Michael Forbes, flares back to life. Forbes won't sell land to facilitate the development of the £1billion Trump golf resort. The extravagantly-tonsored Trump calls Forbes 'the local village idiot', but the latter says: 'If I'm the village idiot, then he must be the New York clown. I don't understand why is getting his nappy in a knot.' Perhaps Trump should choose a friendlier venue - Helmand Province? - for his golf course.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford, has apologised to the Irish tax authorities after one of his clerics called them 'the biggest shower of bastards on the planet'. Cork-based Fr Tadhg O'Donovan had been made to pay nearly £400,000 on underdeclared income and capital gains tax. He was revealed to have had large rental income from 11 properties he owned. Isn't canny Fr O'Donovan wasted as a parish priest?